City police arrested a Larch Street man Thursday on charges he set fire to a vacant home on his street in October then set its garage on fire days later.
Christopher Gillie, 52, 321 Larch St., told city Fire Marshal Martin Monahan that he broke into 318 Larch St., looked through the empty home then decided to set it on fire on Oct. 25, police said.
Mr. Gillie said he found a roll of paper towels in the basement, partially unrolled it on a couch on the first floor and set it on fire. He then walked out the back door, across the street and into his own home, police said.
The fire tore through the two-story home and, after city firefighters extinguished it, an investigation by city Fire Inspector Jim Lunney determined the fire began on the charred couch.
The cause of the fire was left undetermined until an electrical malfunction could be ruled out as a cause.
Four days later, on Oct. 29, city firefighters headed back to 318 Larch St. for a fire in the detached garage - a structure that got its power through the home and had been in the dark since authorities cut power to the home during the first fire.
City Fire Inspectors Lunney and Jack Joyce ruled that fire an arson. It appeared the fire had been set just inside a window. The inspectors then took another look at the remains of the home and ruled that fire an arson as well, having ruled out an electrical cause, police said.
Soon after, Detective Sgt. Monahan, the fire marshal, went through the neighborhood asking residents about the fires. He spoke to Mr. Gillie, who claimed he had been asleep until the firetrucks arrived for the house fire.
Back at police headquarters, though, an anonymous phone tipster offered Mr. Gillie's name as a possible suspect not only in the Larch Street blaze but also in a series of fires in the Moscow area.
Mr. Gillie's name came up again when state police Fire Marshal Russ Andress called Detective Sgt. Monahan to ask about the Larch Street man, who he believed set fire to a dumpster at Mendicino's Pizza in Covington Twp.
In an interview Thursday at police headquarters, Mr. Gillie admitted to the two Larch Street arsons as well as the dumpster fire in Covington Twp., police said.
Mr. Gillie told Detective Sgt. Monahan that he did not know why he set the fires but doing so "took away all the thoughts he had in his head," police said.
For the two Scranton fires, Mr. Gillie was charged with four counts of arson and related charges. He was sent to the Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $150,000 bail. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Friday.
Information on possible charges against Mr. Gillie in the Covington Twp. fire was not immediately available.
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